9Lives Chicken Dinner - Light on Chicken and Taste Appeal
Written: Mar 19 '02 (Updated Mar 20 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap, comes as a 4 pack
Cons: Cheap becomes expensive when your cats won't eat it. Contains fillers, by-products, meat, fish.
The Bottom Line: Try it once, realizing this is not a premium food, and be prepared to donate the other 3 cans in this 4 pack, to your local shelter.
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| patriciak's Full Review: 9Lives Chicken Dinner Cat Food |
In my never-ending search for good quality canned cat food for my cat with chronic cystitis (Lyra), I've been trying a number of brand names on the market (and reviewing them). 9Lives, a division of Heinz, has several formulations, including a Gourmet and a Plus Care. This review is simply for their basic Chicken Dinner.
9Lives Chicken Dinner Cat Food - The Title Implies
a delicious, packed with chicken food for your feline.
Wrong!, more on that in a minute. The food claims that "animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate that this product provides complete and balanced nutrition for growth and maintenance." Sold as a 4 pack of 5.5 oz cans, the steel cans (the label encourages recycling) newly feature a pop-top, along with a warning that the edges will be sharp. There is a Use By date stamped on the bottom of each can which is clear, easy to read and understand. The label states New! Richer, Meatier Taste!...I think their test animals decided to just give in and eat it. They've been mis-led if they think they've got improved taste, or else, the previous version was truly awful.
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein - Min...9.0%
Crude Fat - Min...4.5%
Crude Fiber - Max...1.0%
Moisture - Max...78.0%
Ash - Max...3.5%
Taurine - Min...0.05%
Recommended Feeding Amount
Adult Cat (weighing 6-8 lbs.)or 3 lb. Kitten - 1 can twice a day.
The odd thing about this being rated for growth, besides questionable quality (use of by-products and wheat middlings)of some ingredients, would be that by 3 lbs. most kittens are several months old. For the very young kitten (say 6-8 weeks and being weaned from mothers milk)this feeding guide is useless.
The Ingredients Skip if you wish to simply read about the test taste results and my conclusion.
Listed in order of proportion - first ingredient is what there is the most of in this "chicken dinner".
Water sufficient for processing, meat by-products,
chicken, poultry by-products, fish, wheat middlings, salt, guar gum, dried whey, titanium dioxide, potassium chloride, choline chloride,carrageenan, vitamins:(vitamin E supplement, thiamine mononitrate, niacin supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin A supplement,riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, menadione sodium bisulfite complex, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement), taurine, minerals:(ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), beta carotene, sodium nitrite (to promote color retention).
The Look - The Smell
Upon opening the can, there was an immediate smell of...fish. Fish? Isn't this "Chicken Dinner", not "chicken flavored", not "with chicken", but "Chicken Dinner"?
The ground food has a light pink to beige color, and a fair amount of clear jelly under and around the dense patty of food.
Taste Test Results
Lyra simply refused. Not one lick of the jelly, nor one taste of the food, she just walked away. Patrick (15 year old catizen who is pretty affable and indiscriminate about what wet food he'll eat, though his appetite is sometimes off) did not take a single taste either. I let in a little 5 lb. tiny, "chow-hound" of a cat, and she wouldn't eat it either.
Desperate to not just throw away the food, I put it out for general consumption with my most hard-core, non-picky, cast-iron stomach cats. They took their time, and no one pushed to be eating first, no one wolfed the food, grabbed a pawfull out of the bowl..they just looked at it, and dispassionately took turns eating a bit, until it was gone.
When is Cheap Too Expensive?
As a four pack costing just under a dollar at Petsmart, this is a very reasonable cost per 5.5 oz. can of wet food. 9Lives has at least one variety that my cats do like (their Gourmet varieties, sold in 3 oz. cans), but 9Lives Chicken Dinner needs to go back to the kitchen for more revision of this recipe. I think that any food called "chicken dinner" should have chicken as its first or at least second ingredient, not third, and I would hope that 9Lives would consider dropping the use of meat and poultry by-products. If my cats will not eat this food, the price is not a good deal, and I don't appreciate the extra time it then takes to go back to the store and pickup something that Lyra will eat.
Perhaps this blend will be one that your cat will very much enjoy, just be prepared to be making a donation of the remaining cans to your local shelter.
Guarantee's and How to Contact the Company
There is no guarantee of satisfaction, no money-back guarantee. While there isn't a website address given, you may call them with questions or comments at:
1-800-252-7022, M-F, 9 to 5 pm EST. Be prepared to give them the code# stamped on the can (below the Use By date).
Thanks for reading and rating my review!
Recommended:
No
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patriciak
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About Me:
I will always carry you in my heart, my sweetlings. I miss you so.
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